Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA.
2024 - December.
"I better head home."
Chris Harper muttered while walking towards his locker, this was his last year at Scranton High. He was feeling tired today, so he was skipping PE.
"Hey there, Chris, Are you heading to the gym?"
A beautiful girl came in as soon as Chris opened the locker, he had to half-shut his locker door to see who it was, and seeing the girl, Chris tilted his head. He was not sure if he had seen this girl in his seventeen years of life.
"I am not. Who…are you?"
Chris asked while squinting his eyes a little, the girl looked beautiful, sure, but he had no memory of this girl at all.
"Oh! I am sorry, my name is Minnie. I am a transferred student from Korea and a junior this year. We have never met each other. It's nice to meet you."
The girl with her very expressive eyes extended her hands for a handshake. Usually people would not approach Chris like this, he was six feet five inches and was extremely handsome, also a bit intimidating by just standing.
"Minnie? Well, tell me your Korean name."
Chris chuckled, then shook her tiny hand with a smile on his face. His hands were very big compared to her dainty little hands, and he could also feel she was very nervous because her hands were trembling a bit.
"I… It's Kim Min-So. I came just last month to this school."
Minnie replied, while Chris took his hand back and continued what he was doing, he was not that concerned about Minnie because he knows who was pulling the strings behind her.
"Is that so? Nice to meet you, Minnie. My name is Chris Harper, you can call me Chris, and I am not going to the gym."
Chris replied normally, he was sure she was just a victim, so he had no plan to make her life hard, he was just unloading books inside his locker from his backpack.
" Whhh…Why not?"
Minnie almost shrieked when talking with such a tall person, he also looked very scary with his mint-colored eyes and wavy brown hair.
"Well, I feel tired. You can tell your friend Grace that I won't be attending her birthday party too."
Chris closed the locker and looked at Minnie with a gentle smile on his face, while Minnie looked horrified because she was caught, her face looked redder every minute.
" I…I "
Tears welled up in Minnie's eyes as she wiped it over and over again, but it seemed to be endless.
"Well… You are quite the naive one, aren't you? I know you've lost some kind of a game with Grace, right? She gave you a dare to talk with me?"
Chris, seeing her cry, was a bit flustered, he was a high schooler as well, so he didn't know what to do with this situation, so he just pointed out what he knew, and Minnie was constantly nodding her head in response.
"Well, don't worry, she bullies every new girl like that. She doesn't have a bad intention, I will talk with her."
Chris, to comfort her, patted her head gently, as this is as much as he can do for her, she has to calm down herself, and he can't go overboard. He thought she would stop crying after two or three minutes, but she kept wiping her tears while still standing there like a lost little girl.
"Here, see this? This is my locker. Would you believe it if I said I have one thousand dollars in cash in this?"
Chris just randomly wanted to cheer her up, so he bent a little to meet her eyes and pointed at his locker with a tender smile on his face.
He was, of course, expecting a 'NO' for an answer, but the naive girl in front of him nodded her head while fidgeting her fingers.
[Ding!!]
Chris looked at the girl in front of him with a visible shock in his face because he just heard a church gong in his head, which was quite shocking and loud.
[Welcome to Get Believed to obtain the Reward System!!]
[You have just been believed. Reward: Your locker now has $1000 in cash (with tax-paid documents).]
[Description: One belief in each of your monetary lies can earn you up to ten thousand dollars.]
Before he could even ask anything about the sound, a transparent panel appeared in front of him, which was glowing, and there was a lot of stuff written on it.
Chris's mouth, which was opened to ask a question, got widened with more shock as he read, then he looked at the girl in front of him, she was looking directly in his eyes as if this thing didn't exist at all.
This is? System? SYSTEM??!!!! From all the novels I've read, I shouldn't be shocked, yet still I am, but why? I am handsome? I am not that poor. Why me? Does the world think I am a fucking loser?
Chris was having an internal conflict with himself, while Minnie was feeling awkward because she just cried a river, and this handsome boy seemed to be lost somewhere else.
"Ahem!! I am sorry, Minnie, I got a bit distracted there. You're a very nice girl. How about we have a chat with your friend Grace?"
Chris said with a smile on his face, In front of him there was now no system panel because he knows he can make it disappear by just commanding in his head.
Minnie was about to shake her head in fear when Chris opened the locker suddenly with a sound, and after peeking inside, smiled broadly, then, locking it back with a *BANG* he walked ahead, leaving no room for Minnie to refuse, and he knew exactly where he would find Grace.
Minnie struggled to chase after him because his feet were very tall, and he looked like a general that was about to rush into a battle.
Chris soon saw a pink-haired girl standing with her friends at the edge of the school field, as soon as he entered the field, every eye landed on him, even from upstairs windows. Grace was standing with a small smile on her face near the science building. Seeing Chris walking towards her with Minnie on his heels, she also started to stride towards him.
"Grace"
"Chris"
As the two most attractive people in the whole school stare into each other, everyone looks at them while holding their breath. Everyone wants to date Grace, but she only has eyes for Chris, and Chris has never spoken to Grace publicly like this since they were children.